Nikolai Podgorny

Nikolai Podgorny (18 February 1903-12 January 1983) was Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union from 9 December 1965 to 16 June 1977, succeeding Anastas Mikoyan and preceding Leonid Brezhnev.

Biography
Nikolai Podgorny was born in Karlovka, Ukraine, Russian Empire, and he was educated at the Kiev Institute for Food Technology. He came to benefit from the gap in the state administration left after Joseph Stalin's Great Purge, so that in 1939 he became Deputy People's Commissar for the Ukrainian food industry, and in 1940 occupied that post for the Soviet Union as a whole. A protege of Nikita Khrushchev, he joined the CPSU Central Committee in 1956, and the Politburo in 1960. In 1963, he became a Secretary of the Central Committee. He was an important member during the transition of power from Khrushchev to Leonid Brezhnev, who maneuvered him to become the titular head of state in 1965, after which his power declined as that of Brezhnev increased.